#Themed Malls

[hong-kong-art-man]

Shopping Is Always A Pleasurable Culture. What Are The 5 Kinds Of Shopping Malls In Hong Kong?

We like shopping. We are not the wave, but part of the ocean so far as shopping is concerned. Life is terrible wrestling. When we shop, our bodies release dopamine, the ‘feel-good hormone’. The more we shop, the better we feel. Right?

Leslie Fok(霍俊熹) was born in Canada. He graduated from University of Toronto and returned to work in Hong Kong. He now manages a very special shopping mall called ‘D2 Place’ which is an attempt to build up a community centre among the creative and cultural groups. He is an expert in the branding and marketing of malls.  

My natural curiosity led me to ask, “What are the different malls in Hong Kong?” Leslie replied without doubt, “There are 5 kinds: luxury malls, mainstream malls, neighbourhood malls, themed malls and community hubs.”  

He explained, “Famed luxury brands like Chanel, Prada, Burberry and Hermes have secured their place in these grand malls to cater for affluent locals and travellers. These luxury malls are such as Harbour City, Pacific Place, Elements and Landmark. Customers like these malls because they are usually high class and chic, and this will contribute to their sense of social pride. Every detail in a ‘luxury mall’ is meant to be on par with what a rich man wants” 

Leslie paused, “Mainstream malls cater for ordinary tourists and local people who have a higher-than-average spend. Times Square in Causeway Bay and APM in Kwun Tong are very good examples. Rental income is usually the main objective of a mainstream mall. They try to accommodate the widest possible range of customers on each floor. One floor may sell sports shoes but another floor may sell household appliances.” I laughed, “Mainstream malls are like high-class hypermarkets.”  

I said, “I don’t go to luxury malls as I don’t need most of the things there. I love neighbourhood malls because I can wear flip-flops.” Leslie smiled, “Neighbourhood malls sell daily convenience goods such as foodstuff, personal care products and casual wear. They satisfy the day-to-day needs of people who live or work in the local area and may include ancillary services such as a bank. These malls are very basic & there is nothing fancy. The malls in our public housing estates are mostly neighbourhood malls.”  

Leslie continued, “The intent of the 4th kind i.e. a themed mall is simple and straightforward—to attract a specific group of customers to buy things there. The clear examples are outlet malls, furniture malls and electronics malls etc. Themed centres are bound to alienate some shoppers who will turn their noses up at the singular nature of these places. Customers here are just eager to buy what they desire in only one location because time is money. It is easier for them to compare prices too.”

Leslie said, “The final kind is more than a mall. It is a place where birds of the same feather can flock together. I am working out a mall called ‘D2 Place’ where I want the creative and cultural youngsters to gather for enlightening social events, recreational activities and perhaps educational classes. I label it as a ‘community hub’ and it provides a great place for young people to hang out, make new friends and display their full potential. The sense of community belonging boosts the spiritual well-being of a young person as well.” 

I added, “There may be the 6th type of mall called an ‘art mall’. It is a new trend. Such a mall combines the features of a museum and shopping centre. It carries a mission which is to enrich the daily life of a customer through the power of art and culture. In Hong Kong, some malls claim they are devoted to this great cause.” Leslie replied, “This type of mall is not yet a mature model. Dream is valiant. Let’s wait to see if there will be any handicap to this missionary development.” 

Leslie concluded our conversation, “With the rise of e-commerce, people are less likely to visit malls for shopping needs. This has resulted in a decrease in foot traffic and consequently, a decrease in sales. Mall shops are struggling to keep up with the competition from online retailers. Mall rental is generally high in Hong Kong. What has made it more difficult for mall operators here is that people don’t like malls which are more than 4 storeys. Customers dislike long walk. They prefer quick entry and exit in relation to a mall. This is why the ground floor rental of a mall is much higher.”  Shopping is always a good culture. There are however too many malls in Hong Kong. For a shopping centre without a focus or edge, the place is doomed for failure. Apart from the wacky consumerism pertinent to a shopping mall, I do hope it can also be another ideal place to incubate the alternative cultural civilization of a special city like Hong Kong.

Maurice Lee

Chinese Version 中文版: https://www.patreon.com/posts/huo-jun-xi-xiang-87829720?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link 

Songkran 2023 @ D2 Place Acknowledgement – D2 Place ONE

Leslie Fok Interview@D2 Place Top 10 Artisans Award Presentation Ceremony 2022 Acknowledgement-D2 Place ONE

Hong Kong Tung Chung Citygate Outlets short walk (Themed Mall) Acknowledgement- Hong Kong Wandering TV

Hong Kong Shopping Malls (Luxury Malls) Acknowledgement-allthegoodles Travel

[bittasol]

smile, iruma! | hey ive been here before

[evan-collins90]

Ontario Mills Mall - Ontario, CA (1996)

Designed by F+A Architects

Scanned from 'Vertigo - the Strange New World of the Contemporary City' (1999)

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Nintendo owned a huge chunk of Antarctica, and built a Legend of Zelda theme park on it. The theme park was just a mall, with no Legend of Zelda stuff in it.

[squeakadeeks]

i can never middle part my hair because i look like a cross between viktor league of legends and the biggest asshole who would self identify as a 'cinephile' who is writing a screenplay about how stupid his ex was

[zmbiefood]

my fav living dead dolls<3

school time sadie / sybil / toxic molly variant / mildread / maggot / killbaby / sabbath blood variant / peggy goo / sweet 16 sadie

[sanrioblr]

★。＼｜／。★

[daily-basil]

Perhaps a Basil holding hands with a snuuy

They're at a Christmas market

[fiveredlights]

Loved it!!!! Is there any Benjamin POV of when he found out Max and Daniel were drivers in this world? Like any thought process? It surprised me too that they weren't in his world haha. Thanks for sharing!

okay i managed 400 words of benjamin arriving in the universe and then my brain continued on its holiday in aruba so i’ve written out what would’ve happened afterwards

It's not like Benjamin expected there to be a whole parade when he landed into his DAUD universe, but a room full of people staring at him like he's an alien from another planet feels a little weird.

Technically, he is an alien from outer space—if you equate an alien to a life form, and the other planet is true, but at that point they should consider that we’re all aliens in a planet floating around the universe and there’s no need to stare at him like that.

Or really, they aren’t staring at him. They’re staring at the name emblazoned into his race suit. Or the flag. Maybe they’re struggling to understand why the Dutch and Australian flags are mashed together.

Benjamin worked really hard to get the team and the FIA to approve that. He had to do a whole presentation.

One of the people—his boss he assumes, given that he’s one of the two people to be wearing RB shirts—takes a slow step forward, adjusting the black rounded frames on his face.

“Benjamin—” Ooh, French, “—Ricciardo-Verstappen,” he states, though it’s really more like a question.

“Yeah.” He steps out of the portal tube. “Did I get sent to the wrong universe or?”

“Maybe,” someone in a Red Bull shirt quietly mutters and the other RB shirt guy hits him in the shoulder and scolds, “Christian.”

He has no idea who this Christian guy is but he knows he already doesn’t like him. Giving off bad energy, or whatever Julian uses as an excuse whenever he meets someone he doesn’t like.

“I’m Laurent Mekies, I’m your team principal,” the French—Laurent says. “Can we just confirm who your parents are?”

Everyone in the room seems to lean in and hold their breath. Benjamin thinks they’re all really weird. “Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. They live in Monaco, or well in my universe they live in Monaco, so maybe they’re in the Netherlands or Australia here.”

Laurent immediately spins onto his heels and they all form some sort of emotional support huddle, like they’re the ones who got sent through to another universe.

“I’ll get Max,” Christian sighs and points a finger at Laurent. “You’re calling Daniel.”

Laurent tenses. “I don’t want to call Daniel. Why can’t you call Daniel? You knew him longer?”

Christian goes very quiet. “I think he’s blocked my number,” he says with no room for further questions as he walks out of the room.

—

benjamin has found a wheely chair to spin around the room in whilst laurent peter and helmut (idk if he's here) debate on who is calling daniel, benjamin's like "I can call Daniel if you don't want to break the news," and frankly it's a bit concerning how three of these very grown men look very ready to take this offer.

eventually someone is like, you know what. we'll get MAX to call him. daniel will answer max's calls and they leave benjamin in the room with laurent whilst the rest of them look in the mirror and wonder what they need to do to atone for this hell-ish situation they've been placed in.

(there is no atonement possible. you must live in the decisions you made. no amount of apologies or prayers will be able to heal the deep, deep scars you have given. zero love and zero light will be given.)

“So Max works here or?” benjamin asks, if only to make small talk so they’re not sitting in silence. laurent takes a very long look, he's confused. he tells him that of course Max works here, he's a driver?? but reigns it in because maybe benjamin was asking if max was at some different RBR factory. or maybe he's asking because he thinks max is in monaco, laurent doesn't possess the brain cells needed right now.

benjamin is thinking oh maybe max's a sim driver. or a test driver. he knows that max's father was a f1 driver, but doesn't really know much else. nowhere in benjamin's brain is the thought that max is a formula 1 driver, and certainly nowhere in benjamin's brain is the thought that he's a 4x WDC.

max walks in, looks at benjamin. benjamin looks back. max walks out.

he walks in again. looks at benjamin again. walks out again.

he walks in again. is about to walk out when benjamin's like, "You know walking out for the third time doesn't activate me being sent back to my universe?"

(internally, max is like, oh my god. he talks exactly like daniel. i'm looking at another daniel. which you know. a little bit insane given that i wrote benjamin to look like max, and benjamin wouldn't really sound like daniel accent wise at least, given that they raised the kids in monaco, but you know. maybe the speech patterns are similar, who the fuck knows. easier to see the parts of the person you love than yourself in your kid. can't blame him, daniel did the exact same thing for like the whole fic.)

max immediately looks around at the whole group of people and does a head nod for benjamin to follow him into his office, and it’s probably not until he sees the replica WDC trophy sitting on a bookcase with max’s name inscribed on it benjamin’s like what the fuck…

in his head benjamin is like, i am hiding the fact that i am shocked about max being a driver so well. he’s not. he’s kinda just staring at the trophy but max is way too distracted about the fact that alternate him had a kid (emphasis on kid, singular) with daniel.

benjamin is stalking around the room looking at EVERYTHING, and he catches the photo of max and daniel in malaysia 2016 and is even more like what the fuck… BOTH of my parents are drivers?????

first thought: they’re both horrible normal road car drivers. maybe it makes sense now.

second thought: god it’s so cool that his parents (or this version of his parents) are formula 1 drivers. that’s like so arguably cool. suck it julian, he KNEW doing the DAUD program was a good thing. 

third thought: do they know sebastian vettel.

in this moment he has decided that this max and daniel cannot know that his max and daniel aren’t drivers. he kinda suspects that max might be going through a quick existential crisis and he’s not making it bigger by telling 4x WDC max that his max is a 0x WDC and has never driven a f1 car in his life. 

(also it has not crossed his mind that this max and daniel are not together. if you saw that photo of malaysia with max looking at daniel doing the shoey like he wants to jump his bones in public, yeah i wouldn’t question it either and end that line of thought immediately.)

i’m learning very quickly that benjamin processes things so quickly that he doesn’t really have time to freak out.

max is processing everything and benjamin is like “are you gonna call dad or?? where is he??”

max: dad?

benjamin: yeah. dad. daniel. this tall. your husband. or partner idk i don’t know, i’m not gonna assume. oh god are you guys broken up here please don’t tell me that. i mean like tell me, but like that’s so weird.

max kinda looks embarrassed and benjamin clocks him so quickly. 

benjamin: oh. you two aren’t together here. you two have never been together here.

max: … yeah

benjamin is immediately like fuck everything about them being drivers what do you MEAN they aren’t together???? he looks at the malaysia photo again. looks at max again. 

benjamin then decided his only goal is to parent trap his parents. which i think he did achieve. good job dude.

[mishalikessoundsandcolours]

GUESS WHO'S GOT AN ATOM HEART MOTHER HOODIE NOW

I didn't really have any Pink Floyd merch before but me and my friend were walking around a mall with a huge vinyl/CD section that also has some band merch yesterday and there I saw this beauty – even reduced at a 50% sale :D Like I usually only see pf merch related to DSOTM, The Wall or Animals so this was a really nice find

[frameconfessions]

I don't think the Technocyte Coda "boys" are the original On-Lyne boys. I think the originals are long dead and these things are cloned from leftover DNA like hairbrushes and things like that (like one of Amir's datamined emails mentions in the mall). We know the Orokin like trying to do longevity experiments and cloning experiments later on in the timeline and if Gregory V is Alad V's ancestor, the motivations would certainly line up.

[s-stargrrl-l]

𝙿𝚑𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚖𝚎 𝙸𝚗𝚜𝚙𝚘

[cartoon-buffoon]

"what inspired you to obsess over Cartoon Cat x Cartoon Dog as a ship?"

Nasty Dog by Sir-mix-a-lot.

"I'm sorry wha–"

I SAID THE SONG NASTY DOG BY SIR-MIX-A-LOT!

[phoebebuggers]

i love season 4 but it feels so incredibly different from every other season i feel like im watching a different show

[a-dotrivenitupontop]

letterboxd lists be like ‘films that personally kicked the patriarchy in the nuts and saved every woman ever ✨’ and it’s Peppa Pig’s Big Girly Shopping Trip

[zmbiefood]

(x)